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An unappealing box of chocolates that isn't worth the high asking price

When I was first diagnosed with Diabetes I was told that rather than buying expensive diabetic chocolate, it is best just to have normal chocolates in moderation. After sampling this box of chocolates I can see why this is good advice.

Firstly, there is a restriction on how many chocolates you can eat anyway due to the laxative effects of the ingredients. It is recommended you only eat about 20g of polyols which works out as about 3 chocolates, the amount of chocolates you might as well eat with sugar in.

The assortment contains dairy fugde, citrus fruit, turkish delight, caramel truffle and toffee. Highlights being the toffee and caramel varieties. All of the chocolates have something of a samey unflavourless theme and there is nothing very distinctive on offer to get the palate dancing.

By far the worst of the selection was the dairy fudge which was so artifically sweet and sickly it was enough to induce a coughing fit. The chocolates are nicely decorated in typical Thorntons style to make them appealing on the eye, but no amount of decoration can disguise the fact that this isn't a very tasty box of chocolates.

At about £8 for the box, it isn't exactly good value for money as there are less chocolates than in a standard box of Thorntons chocolate for this price. If you want value for money you would be better off buying a cheaper box of normal chocolates and making them last, rather than spending the money on a box you probably won't enjoy. Diabetic chocolate is certainly no substitute for the real thing and will leave you craving it even more to get rid of the nasty taste it leaves behind.

The fat content is also miles higher than you will find in other chocolates which is why health professionals will recommend you avoid them.

The diabetic chocolates are on offer in a smaller range at Thorntons so I recommend you try a smaller packet before committing to a larger box that more likely than not, you won't enjoy.

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a reasonable option for diabetics but beware of the laxative effects!

We bought these prettily packaged chocs as a gift for my diabetic aunt. However, we didn't get to see her and instead of letting the chocs go to waste, thought we would sample them ourselves.

BEWARE! We didn't read the packet first which was a real mistake - my husband is not someone who can leave the chocs alone once they are open and was merrily chomping away when he found himself feeling rather poorly in the tummy department! After about 25 minutes he had to rush off to the loo and continued to do so 7 or so times in the next 12 hours. My husband has a cast-iron stomach so for a food to have this effect is highly unusual.

WHY did it happen? Looking at the small print, there is a warning: "Excessive consumption may produce laxative effects." When looking further down the box at the small print, there was the following warning:

"This product contains polyols and we recommend eating no more than 20g polyols per day due to potential laxative effects. However sensitive individuals may react to levels less than this."

The nutritional information states that each chocolate has 6.5g of polyols so this means that you shouldn't eat more than 3 chocs per day. 4 chocs is not "excessive consumption" to my mind. However, my husband had eaten 7 chocs before he realised !!!

TASTE? They were ok but not as tasty as Thorntons regular chocs. They all taste a bit samey and lack the "freshness" of Thorntons regular chocs. The box contains an assortment of Turkish delight, caramel flavour choc truffle, nutty almond praline, vanilla fudge, coffee truffle, dairy toffee and citrus fruit truffle. In our opinion, the Turkish delight, citrus fruit truffle and vanilla fudge were the best in box.

Recommendation: a palatable option for diabetics but be warned of the laxative effects!!!